Baseball and softball are popular sports in the U.S. and around the world. Participants in these sports desire to practice hitting a ball, and often the practice involves hitting the ball a significant distance. In live game situations, frequently the batter desires to hit the ball a long distance, but great distances are not necessarily conducive to efficient practice. In short, hitting the ball a long way in practice requires the hitter or someone else to also pursue the ball for a significant distance and retrieve it before the next practice swing can be taken. Also, the farther a ball travels after being hit, the more likely it will strike a person or object and cause injury or property damage.
Various approaches have been taken to limit the distance a ball travels after it is hit during practice. For example, some hitters take practice in front of a solid object that stops the ball, such as a net, wall, or fence. These approaches are not ideal for a number of reasons, including because the ball may miss the net, and the ball may damage the wall or fence, or injure a person.
Aside from safety considerations, other approaches have been tried to make batting practice more efficient. For example, some hitters practice hitting from a batting tee. A batting tee can be adjusted to practice swinging at high pitches and low pitches. But a batting tee cannot be adjusted laterally to practice hitting inside and outside pitches. Also, hitting from a batting tee does not solve the concerns noted above about retrieving the ball, and the relationship between the distance the ball travels and the possibility of injury or property damage. Another approach involves a flexible stick with a ball-like object fixably attached at the end. The ball-like object is presented to the hitter, and after the bat makes contact, the object and flexible stick move together. Although the object does not usually travel great distances, this does not provide the same feel of hitting an actual ball. Further, the ball-like object is usually made of a harder material than an actual ball, which can damage the bat. With the expensive bats that are sold, a damaged or broken bat is a significant expense.
Accordingly, there is a need for a batting practice apparatus that limits the distance the ball travels after it is hit, that allows the hitter to swing at an actual ball with full force, that reduces the possibility of injury and property damage from a hit ball, that can be used either on a ball field or in a more confined space, and that allows the hitter to practice swinging at a ball positioned in various locations, e.g., low, high, inside, and outside pitches.